Tuesday, December 11, 2007

"Journeyman" Recap & Review - "Home By Another Way"

Journeyman"Home By Another Way"

Original Airdate 12/10/07

Jeff L - TwoCents Staff Writer

It’s Christmas Eve and this time we open not in the present, but in 1948 – Livia’s present day. Livia is getting ready for Christmas. She’s got a fancy locket on too. There’s a knock at her door and she stashes the picture of her and Dan. There’s a mystery man at the door but he’s not a mystery to Livia who kisses him and there’s a slow dissolve to present day in the Vasser house.

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It’s Christmas Eve and this time we open not in the present, but in 1948 – Livia’s present day. Livia is getting ready for Christmas. She’s got a fancy locket on too. There’s a knock at her door and she stashes the picture of her and Dan. There’s a mystery man at the door but he’s not a mystery to Livia who kisses him and there’s a slow dissolve to present day in the Vasser house.

This time, it’s Katie who’s getting ready for Christmas. She’s baked about a thousand cookies and she’s making more. The Vassers are planning a neighborhood holiday party and Katie wants to be prepared. Dan and Jack’s mother is even coming in on the train for the party. Dan is worried about Katie and he should be because she has post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from the incident with the gunman just a few weeks ago. Dan seems fine now after having been shot though.

Dan’s editor calls and orders him to come to the newspaper office on the double. He won’t explain why. When Dan arrives, we meet Nancy Stokes a veteran reporter at the paper. Dan’s boss pulls out the booze and pours him a shot before he breaks the news about his meeting with Dennis Aumbacher the newspaper’s publisher. Aumbacher is cutting the editorial staff by 25 percent. First casualty? Dan Vasser. Hugh, the editor is also on the way out. He refused to fire anyone and turned in his notice.

Dan goes to clean out his desk and the rest of the reporters, all wanting the story, tail him and find out he’s being fired along with 25 percent of the editorial staff. The reporters notice Nancy Stokes at her desk and remark about how she’s certainly not going to be fired. Apparently she’s had something going on with Aumbacher for years. Dan spots Aumbacher and follows him into the elevator where he gives the publisher a piece of his mind. Aumbacher doesn’t want to hear it and tells Dan that maybe he wouldn’t be fired if his stories weren’t down 30 percent over the last four months (coincidently the same amount of time he’s been Quantum Leaping). Aumbacher and his cronies exit the elevator and Vasser gets off at the next stop – 1979.

Dan is at the 1979 newspaper Christmas Eve party. It’s the one where Aumbacher’s father has a heart attack and dies, leaving his son Dennis in charge of his publishing business. Vasser’s father is also there and Dan is glad to see him again, since Christmas day 1979 was when he abandoned his family. Livia is also at the party and she and Dan discuss if they are there to save old man Aumbacher or try to talk Vasser’s father into not leaving his family. A young Nancy Stokes is also at the party. She’s just a lowly copygirl right now and Dan remembers the story he heard about Stokes being the one who caused old man Aumbacher’s heart attack – in a romantic after party interlude.

Back in the present Jack shows up at Dan and Katie’s house for the party. He’s got Dr. McCutie, the woman he’s been dating for awhile, along with him. There’s a call from his mother and Jack rushes off to pick her up at the train station. Dan was supposed to, but he’s running a little late – 27 years late. Dr. McCutie and Katie are left to bond. Dr. McCutie finds the apron that Aaden Bennett made Katie wear and that sparks her flashbacks and PTSD again.

1979, a sleazy guy at the party tries to hit on Livia, but she blows him off. Dan and Livia split up. Dan goes to talk to his father and Livia heads over to keep an eye on old man Aumbacher. They meet up at the drink table to compare notes and the sleazy guy comes on stronger with Livia. Dan tries to tell the guy that she’s with him, but he doesn’t care. He’s Dennis Aumbacher, the old man’s son and the guy who just fired Dan back in 2007. Young sleazy Aumbacher goes for Livia once more and Dan knocks him on his ass. Livia looses her fancy locket in (Livia looses locket – I love alliteration) and Dan picks it up noticing that it contains a picture of Mystery Man. Livia tells Dan about Henry, the mystery man. He and Livia were on a date back in 1948 before she was pulled forward in time to help Dan in 1979.

Jack and mom Vasser arrive at the house and everyone is covering for Dan, who’s either working or stuck in traffic or having a flat tire somewhere, but he comes down stairs and claims he just overslept. Dan pulls Jack aside and asks him to look into old man Aumbacher’s death and says he has to go into work for awhile. Back at the office, Dan asks Nancy Stokes about old man Aumbacher and she claims she never met the guy. Dan gets a call on his iPhone (everyone on tv has an iPhone. I want one) and Jack tells him there was an anonymous 911 call about old man Aumbacher’s heart attack back 1979 and he was DOA when paramedics got to him.

Dan jumps back to the party in 1979 and young Dennis Aumbacher is rounding up security to throw him out of the party. Dan hides out in his dad’s office and talks to him (his dad knows him as another reporter he met a few years ago) about how his own father left him and his brother. He tries to talk him out of leaving the family, but he doesn’t have much success. Livia finds him and tells him that the old man is heading to his office but security spot Dan and they try to escort him from the building. Old man Aumbacher sees the commotion and tries to get to the bottom of it. Dan tells the old man that he’s a guest at the party and his father steps up to back his story. Young sleazy Dennis tells his daddy that Dan took a swing at him and the old man isn’t impressed with his son’s way of dealing with the situation. The old man embarrasses Dennis by telling him to “grow a pair” in front of everyone and lets Dan stay at the party.

2007: Mrs. Vasser is fixing all of Katie’s decorations and redoing the chairs in the dining room. Katie thinks Dan and Jack’s mother is out to get her.

Back in 1979, Dan talks more to his father and convinces him to at least tell his boys that it’s not their fault he’s leaving. He doesn’t want them to live their whole lives believing it was their fault he left.

2007: Mrs. Vasser tells Katie that she’s not mad at Katie, she’s glad that Katie makes Dan so happy and that she’s given her a beautiful grandchild (He may be beautiful. Who knows? We hardly ever see the kid.) she’s just a little upset with Katie because she broke Jack’s heart before she ended up with Dan. While she’s explaining she starts to put on “the apron” and Katie flips out. Dr. McCutie chases her but Katie closes the door. Dr. McCutie decides to do a little medicine cabinet detective and Jack catcher her. She tells him she’s worried that Dan might have mental problems and that she was looking for drugs that would indicate he was diagnosed. Jack assures her that his brother isn’t crazy It’s a good thing he’s finally onboard with the whole time travel thing. Dr. McCutie isn’t just worried about Dan. She’s worried about the whole Vasser family, including the Vasser baby she’s carrying. Jack is surprised but happy and they leave the party to discuss it.

Back in 1979, Nancy Stokes has left the party and gone home. Dan and Livia think old man Aumbacher is going to die alone is his office now so they rush to save him but it’s too late. They break down the door and find Dennis Aumbacher sitting at his father’s desk while the old man lies on the floor unconscious. Dan tries to get Aumbacher to call paramedics but he says he refuses to call until the old man is dead. Livia is trying to resuscitate old man Aumbacher but he dies anyway.

Back in present day, Jack and Dr. McCutie talk about the baby and agree that although it’s scary they both want to keep the baby and be together. Mrs. Vasser has a bonding moment with Katie. She talks to Katie about how she might be worried that Dan would leave her and their son someday. Boy, if she only knew. Mrs. Vasser sees a bit of herself in Katie and tells her that she’s a strong independent woman who doesn’t need anyone. That seems to relieve a little of Katie’s PTSD.

Dan’s back too and he rounds up Nancy Stokes to confront Dennis Aumbacher to try to save the 50 staffers he’s about to fire. Dan tells Stokes that he knows that she and Dennis started the rumor about her being with the old man the night he died to cover up the fact that Dennis killed his father. Stokes denies it and thinks Dan should try his hand at fiction. Dan confronts Aumbacher and claims he has the 911 call from 1979 as proof that he was the one who made the anonymous call. Aumbacher calls his bluff and Dan is out of luck, until Nancy Stokes comes in and lets the cat out of the bag. The two of them agree to keep quiet if Aumbacher won’t lay off anyone.

At the Vasser house, Mrs, Vasser is enjoying some carolers. At the office, Dennis Aumbacher tells the staff there will be no cutbacks or layoffs for the foreseeable future. Dan finally shows up for the party and asks Jack to tell him about the night their father left. Jack tells him he can’t believe Dan doesn’t remember about how his father woke them up on Christmas Eve to explain why he was leaving. So Dan changed the past in as far as he was able to make his father explain before he left the family and he was able to change the present with his trip to the past thus saving the jobs of himself, his editor and several of his co-workers.

Also, on the good news front, NBC announced there would be another all new Journeyman next Monday at 10:00. So spread the word, maybe the network is having second thoughts about pulling the plug on the old Journeyman time machine.